It is a goal in the electronics industry to be able to provide reliable electrical connections between electronic circuit components for evaluation and testing. Further, the substrate used to connect components must be able to compensate for dimensional irregularities in the components or subcomponent assemblies being connected. It is presently common practice to use permanent adhesives or solder to connect chips to circuit boards, circuit boards to circuit boards, multichip modules to circuit boards or terminals to terminal connectors for the purpose of evaluating the performance of these components. A chip to circuit board connection can be accomplished with either permanent adhesives or solder. After the test or evaluation procedure is completed, such as in testing for continuity, it is desirable to remove the chip without damaging either the chip, board or electrical contacts thereof. Removing the permanent adhesive from either components, and/or metal contact components is not always satisfactory, as in the case of a soldered BGA chip which becomes unacceptable for use after solder reflow. Similarly, for terminal connections, since solder reflow is necessary for separation, not only is the article frequently damaged, but additional processing steps are required. The additional processing step could also damage the connector or chip.
It is also often necessary to provide temporary connections between traces of one flexible circuit to the traces of another flexible circuit or a ribbonized flat cable to a printed circuit board, or the like. Removal of permanent adhesives and solder joints can frequently result in the loss of the components which are being separated from one another. Similarly, in the medical industry, connector interfaces that provide power sources to surgical implements are conventionally formed via solder connection or permanent adhesives. Separation of the medical device from the power source for cleaning and sterilization result in the damage of instruments, which must be removed for further use.
Thus, a need exists for a temporary and reusable selectively conductive substrate for testing electronic components, e.g., chips, electrical contacts, circuit boards, or for connecting medical instruments to power sources, and the like, that will overcome the drawbacks of the existing prior art connecting techniques.